Case Study – Racial Abuse Victim

A recent case highlights the ways E-CINS is being used successfully by Voice to assist in the management of Victim Support.

The Issue

A female victim first had contact with Voice after experiencing an assault linked to on-going issues with a neighbour. The referral came from the police after which a Support Worker made contact to discuss their needs around the incident. On speaking to her it became clear that there had been several incidents of racial remarks and name calling to her children by the neighbour’s children. On speaking to the neighbour in an attempt to resolve calmly she was pushed and shoved in front of their son who called the police as he was in fear of his mother’s safety.

The Approach

Voice offered ongoing face-to-face emotional support for the victim and her son. She had struggled to sleep since the incident and their well-being had been affected by the threat of further escalation. As well as the support directly offered to her, details were taken for their son and a referral made to Voice for Children and Young People for individual support.

Personal alarms were sent out to provide reassurance around personal safety and home security and allocation of a Voice Volunteer was arranged with face-to-face appointments held at the Corby Cube. This allowed the victim to talk more about the impact of the incident and explore coping strategies. Communication on her behalf with the police helped to establish what action was being taken. Voice was able to update her that the case was being assigned to the local SCT, and a PCSO had been tasked to make contact with her. The case was referred for mediation but was bounced back to the police as not suitable. She was becoming more and more anxious and requested referral for counselling seeing no resolution.

The Solution

Updates from the Voice supporter suggested that E-CINS could be a useful route for involving the relevant agencies. Voice tasked Corby Neighbourhood Management and the Corby SCT. On reporting the incident onto E-CINS the Community Safety Partnership Team called the victim to inform her that they took her concerns very seriously and would be contacting all the agencies to make sure everything was logged and relevant action taken.

Following the contact from the CSPT the victim told the Voice Volunteer she felt at peace and no longer felt angry. She stated that if there were any further incidents she would definitely report it as she knew it would be taken seriously. She was grateful and thankful for the support received through Voice and that without the support her situation would have ended very differently and highly likely to have escalated.